Building fun and creativity into standards-based learning Language Arts K through 6 Ron De Long, M.Ed. Janet B. McCracken, M.Ed. Elizabeth Willett, M.Ed. © 2007 Crayola, LLC Easton, PA 18044-0431 Acknowledgements This guide and the entire Crayola® Dream-Makers® series would not be possible without the expertise and tireless efforts of Ron De Long, Jan McCracken, and Elizabeth Willett. Your passion for children, the arts, and creativity are inspiring. Thank you. Special thanks also to Bonnie Saunders for her content-area expertise, writing, research, and curriculum development of this guide. Crayola also gratefully acknowledges the teachers and students who tested the lessons in this guide: Barbie Bailey-Smith, Little River Elementary School, Durham, NC Susan Bivona, Mount Prospect Elementary School, Basking Ridge, NJ Jennifer Braun, Oak Street Elementary School, Basking Ridge, NJ Lori Crossley, Round Hills Elementary School, Williamsport, PA Dadie Everett, Jordan Community School, Chicago, IL Regina DeFrancisco, Liberty Corner Elementary School and Mount Prospect Elementary School, Basking Ridge, NJ Keith Giard, Northeast Elementary School, Vernon, CT Felicitas Harris, Oak Hurst Elementary School, Fort Worth, TX Kathleen Hull, Rockway Elementary School, Rockway, FL Craig Hinshaw, Hillar Elementary School, Madison Heights, MI Christy Holloran, Alexander Elementary School, Houston, TX Shari Kaucher, South Mountain Middle School, Allentown, PA Linda Kondikoff, Asa Packer Elementary School, Bethlehem, PA Kamyee Ladas, Mount Prospect Elementary School, Basking Ridge, NJ Romona Lapsley, Mountainside Elementary School, Fort Carson, CO Sandy Lerman, Poinciana Math-Science-Technology Magnet Elementary School, Boynton Beach, FL Elyse Martin, Jordan Community School, Chicago, IL Rebecca J. Martin, Oakhurst Elementary School, Fort Worth, TX Rebecca Murphy, Mount Prospect Elementary School, Basking Ridge, NJ Marcy Muellar, Alexander Elementary School, Houston, TX Diane Myers, Oakhurst Elementary School, Fort Worth, TX Nancy Knutsen, Triangle School, Hillsborough, NJ Jessica Patterson, Tanglewood Elementary School, Fort Worth, TX Marcia Elise Peterson-Effinger, Alton Elementary School, Brenham, TX Julie Piazza, St. Jane Frances De Chantal School, Easton, PA Nancy Rhoads, Curlew Creek Elementary School, Clearwater, FL Rosie Riordan, Sunflower Elementary School, Lenexa, KS Therese Sadlier, Hillar Elementary School, Madison Heights, MI Patricia Skalka, Holly Glen Elementary School, Williamstown, NJ Neila P. Steiner, Community School District 102, Bronx, NY Eleni Strawn, Curlew Creek Elementary School, Clearwater, FL Sandra Young, Jackson Elementary School, Williamsport, PA Sadie Everett, Jordan Community School, Chicago, IL Bobbi Yancey, College Oaks Elementary School, Lake Charles, LA Barbara Yanoshek, Klatt Elementary School, Anchorage, AK Paula Zelienka, St. John Neumann School, Palmerton, PA The education community knows that language arts and vocabulary skills are only strengthened by expanding children’s literacy skills beyond reading, writing, and speaking to include listening skills and visual literacy. As a supplemental curriculum resource, we developed and tested these lessons to stimulate your students’ imaginations and creativity in exploring “beyond the book” to discover more about themselves, their world, our past, and future. Only with a strong sense of curiosity and wonder that both language and visual arts inspire can our children make their own dreams become real. Nancy A. De Bellis Director, Education Marketing Crayola Crayola Dream-Makers is a series of standards-based supplemental ©2007 Crayola, LLC. All rights reserved. curriculum resources that contain lesson plans for educators Permission inquiries should be directed to: teaching kindergarten through 6th grade. Each guide uses visual Crayola art lessons to stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving for Attn: Content Editor individual subject areas such as Math, Language Arts, Science, 1100 Church Lane and Social Studies. Students demonstrate and strengthen their Easton, PA 18044-0431 knowledge while engaging in creative, fun, hands-on learning www.crayola.com/educators processes. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 0-866696-325-1 2 Language Arts Table of Contents Crayola Dream-Makers: Catalyst for Creativity! ....... 4 Lessons Birds of a Feather ...................................................... 6 Information synthesis Extraordinary Fish Stories.......................................... 10 Story interpretation Cutting-Edge Collages: Character, Meaning, & Mood ............................... 14 Characterization & setting Illuminate Your Letters .............................................. 18 Letter writing Making Wishes and Dancing by Moonlight ............... 22 Folktales Beyond a Magic Dragon ............................................ 26 Theme analysis You’re Quite a Character! .......................................... 30 Narrative scripts Biographical Treasures .............................................. 34 Interviews Picture-Story Scrolls .................................................. 38 Plot development Define & Design a Dictionary ................................... 42 Definitions and synonyms Accordion Books for Marvelous Miniature Libraries ............................................... 46 Literary analysis And Then What Happened? A Sequence of Events ........................................... 50 Story sequence Here Is Looking at You! ............................................ 54 Character analysis Words to Draw On .................................................... 58 Parts of speech Mural, Mural on the Wall, What Words Are Known by All? ................................................ 62 Visual symbols Talented Talkers: Puppets With Speech Bubbles ..... 62 Dialog Words in the Wind: A Linguistic Balancing Act ......... 70 Antonyms and homonyms Install a Web of Synonymous Words! ....................... 74 Synonyms Words on the Brain Game ......................................... 78 Definitions Mix-and-Match Vocabulary Books ............................. 82 Decoding Celebrate Diversity With Multicultural Banners ....... 86 Cultural symbolism Wanted: Colorful Characters! .................................... 90 Character sketches Think Outside the Etymological Box! ....................... 94 Prefixes and suffixes Kudos to Heroes and Heroines ................................. 98 Character traits Choosing Crayola Art Supplies .................................... 102 Building fun and creativity into standards-based learning Language Arts 3 Crayola® Dream-Makers®: Catalyst for Creativity! Each Crayola Dream-Makers guide provides elementary classroom and art teachers with 24 arts-focused lessons that extend children’s learning and enhance academic skills. Align these lessons with your school district and state curriculum standards. Stay flexible in your teaching approaches with adaptations like these. • Be prepared. Read through the lesson first. Create an art sample so you understand the process. • Discover new resources. Each lesson contains background information, fine art and craft examples, representative student artwork, vocabulary builders, and discussion ideas. Use these suggestions as a springboard to find resources that address your students’ interests and are pertinent to your community. Search Web sites such as Google Image to locate fine art. Stretch student imaginations and their awareness of the world around them. • Seek creative craft materials. Ask children’s families and local businesses to recycle clean, safe items for project use–and take better care of the environment, too. Recycle, Reuse, Renew! • Showcase student achievements. Create banners to accompany curriculum project displays in your class, school, or community. Post the lesson’s standards-based objectives with displays to demonstrate broad-based student learning. Demonstrate how children’s accomplishments have personal meaning and promote life-long learning through portfolio documentation. • Make this book your own. Jot down your own ideas as you plan and reflect on students’ learning experiences. Combine art techniques and lesson content to fit goals for your students and classroom. Substitute other transformative craft materials. With students, make content webs of possibilities for extending learning opportunities. • Build connections. Collaborate with your students, other teachers, administrators, artists in residence, and community groups to plan lessons that are unique. Work together to promote creative thinking! • Write DREAM statements. As part of the assessment process, students are asked to reflect on their work in a dream journal. Before the lesson, Dream statements are expected to capture children’s prior knowledge about each topic. After each lesson, students state in writing how they will use what they have learned and dream about possibilities for future exploration. • Funding resources. Crayola Dream-Makers lesson plans have been used in school programs funded by a variety of federal, state, local, and private grants. For more information about grants and grant writing visit The Foundation Center at www.fdncenter.org. The lessons in this book are intended to address content benchmarks and grade-level expectations in language arts along with a heavy concentration of key art concepts. All lessons are teacher- and student-tested and follow a consistent format to support you in planning creative, fun learning opportunities for your students.